The Business
A charity dedicated to conservation, education and policy change to protect invertebrate species and to achieve sustainable populations of invertebrates.
Headquartered at the Future Business Centre at Peterborough Stadium – the Buglife team are ‘Actively working to save our rarest little animals.’ Founded in December 2000, the charity has grown from one person in Peterborough to over 50 staff members spread across the UK.
“Invertebrates are vitally important to a healthy planet – humans and other life forms could not survive without them. The food we eat, the fish we catch, the birds we see, the flowers we smell and the hum of life we hear, simply would not exist without bugs”
We contacted our friend, Paul Hetherington, Director of Fundraising and Communications at Buglife to discuss who they are, how they create a positive impact and what they enjoy about being a part of the ‘Allia Community.’
The challenge - What inspired the business?
Today, thousands of invertebrate species are declining and many are heading towards extinction. Worldwide 150,000 species could be gone by 2050 if we do nothing.
Buglife’s aim is to halt the extinction of invertebrate species and to achieve sustainable populations of invertebrates.
We are working hard to achieve this through:
- Promoting the environmental importance of invertebrates and raising awareness about the challenges to their survival.
- Assisting in the development of legislation and policy that will ensure the conservation of invertebrates.
- Developing and disseminating knowledge about how to conserve invertebrates.
- Encouraging and supporting invertebrate conservation initiatives by other organisations in the UK, Europe and worldwide.
- Undertaking practical conservation projects that will contribute to achieving our aim.
The Impact - What positive impact have you created?
In 2023 alone we created or restored £129.5 Hectares (Ha) of wildflower rich habitat for pollinators and secured funding for a further 545 Ha, had the B-Lines principle adopted across the European Union, raised the issue of light pollution with parliamentarians and the public, led species recovery work on 24 invertebrate species, trained over 500 volunteers in riverfly surveys to monitor the health of Scottish rivers, restored 202 Ha of Scottish lowland peat bog and saw income pass £2 million for the first time.
What are Buglife proud of doing as a company?
We have achieved so much for invertebrates since our foundation: the global ban of harmful chemicals, completing the mapping of a network of insect superhighways (B-Lines) across the whole of the UK, saving species such as the Ladybird Spider from UK extinction, won planning battles to save key sites for invertebrates and running the Bugs Matter citizen science surveys the only survey that tracks insect abundance.
Why did you choose Allia as your team's home?
Their good quality serviced office space is situated in the perfect location for our support teams. There is also on site conference facilities for our larger team to meet which we utilise regularly.
We highly recommend Allia due to its exceptional communal set-up and excellent service, making it the perfect fit for modern hybrid working environments.
Paul Hetherington, Director of Fundraising and Communications at Buglife